* The Sun-Times takes a closer look at how Rahm Emanuel made his millions. ComEd was at the center of much of that cash…

Is there anything wrong with mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel making $18.5 million dollars as an investment banker in the 2 ½ years after he got out of the Clinton White House – much of it from Clinton donors?

“I defy you to tell me anybody you know who jumped out of government into a business for which he had no credentials or background, made $18.5 million in two years and then jumped back into government,” said Gery Chico, Emanuel’s rival for the mayor’s office. […]

That $8.2 billion merger created Exelon, parent company of Commonwealth Edison. The Obama White House tapped Exelon CEO John Rowe to lobby lawmakers to support the administration’s greenhouse gas-reducing legislation. Obama senior adviser David Axelrod has worked for Exelon.

“John Rowe and I had known each other, and when I came out of the White House, he called me and said, ‘We’re looking at doing a merger, would you guys be willing to be our banker?’ Wasserstein, Perella, we had expertise in that area,” Emanuel said.

The newly merged utility ended up laying off 3,350 workers, or 10 percent of its work force.

* Speaking of Exelon and ComEd, are rate hikes on the way? We’ve talked about this before, but could be…

Commonwealth Edison and other state utilities would be able to lock in profit margins above 10 percent under a bill to be introduced Tuesday in the General Assembly.

The legislation also proposes that rate hikes for consumers, which typically undergo an 11-month regulatory review, could be decided in as little as 45 days.

ComEd, which helped write the legislation, is pitching the regulatory changes as a better, more streamlined process that would allow utilities to reliably plan for capital investments aimed at modernizing the electrical grid. […]

“At the end of the day, it really is a recipe for automatic rate increases,” said David Kolata, CUB executive director. “It essentially guts our traditional regulatory framework that’s been in place for 100 years and replaces it with an automatic formula. This bill is not what we hoped it would be.” […]

Kolata said the watchdog group is cautiously optimistic about the potential of smart-grid technology to reduce costs for consumers. While he could not support the bill as written, he said he hoped to work with ComEd to improve it in a way that would protect consumers.

Something tells me not to expect Rahm Emanuel’s campaign to decry these proposed rate increases.

* Meanwhile, Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers got their digs in yesterday…

Attorneys for Rod Blagojevich filed a pretrial motion Tuesday seeking what they claimed was missing evidence in the impeached Illinois governor’s corruption trial, including records of a phone call between a Blagojevich aide and then White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

The motion claims the telephone conversation took place just a day before Blagojevich’s December 2008 arrest on charges that include allegations he sought to sell or trade the appointment to President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat for personal gain. The motion says details of that conversation could bolster a defense contention that Emanuel, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, was willing to help with a political deal in which Blagojevich would have named Illinois’ attorney general to the seat.

But the call between Emanuel and then Blagojevich chief of staff John Harris is not among hundreds of transcripts of secret FBI wiretaps recorded before Blagojevich’s arrest. The defense motion points only to circumstantial evidence that it even happened, including a reference in a White House transition-team report from after the arrest that said Emanuel had “about four” conversations with Harris. The defense was given records of only three conversations, according to the motion.

“The fourth and final phone call is the call that is mysteriously missing,” it adds. “Piecing together multiple documents after the first trial, Blagojevich uncovered the fact that the December 8th phone call … took place.”

As I’ve said many times before, by that late in the game I believe that Blagojevich was looking to create an alibi. He knew the feds had tapped his phones, so he started moving ahead with this fantasy of appointing Lisa Madigan to the Obama Senate seat to get the heat off his alleged attempts to auction the seat off.

* And the Jesse White endorsement is already paying dividends. Ald. Walter Burnett has decided not to endorse Carol Moseley Braun for mayor...

The West Side alderman who chaired one of the committees seeking a “consensus” mayoral candidate for African-Americans told Fox Chicago News Monday that he will now endorse no one in the contest.

Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) also singled out for the first time what he believes was the biggest mistake made by the search committee: the decision to bar non-black candidates from appearing before the panel. […]

Burnett spoke to us hours after his longtime mentor, Secretary of State Jesse White, Illinois’s senior African-American politician, endorsed Rahm Emanuel for Chicago Mayor on Monday.

* Related…

* Schools will be major test for next mayor - Key issues include how school board is selected

* School Sends Teachers To Vegas Resort On Taxpayers’ Dime

* Emanuel defends city worker ‘mindset’ ad: “Let me set something straight right now. Rahm Emanuel is sticking it to the working class of this city,” Gery Chico, mayoral candidate, said.

* AG files suit to terminate Burge pension

* Chicago Firefighters Each Getting $5,000 to $8,000 in Back Pay

* Officials report short power outage at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport

* Daley to meet with airlines execs in DC Wednesday

* Exelon switches over to LDI - Change made to reduce volatility in the portfolio and in the funded status

* Electrify Your Portfolio With Utilities: Exelon’s capital and cost structure are the most efficient in the industry. You can see their 69.5% gross margin flow into their attractive 15.6% profit margin. Exelon is more profitable and efficient then its peers because of the low costs of operating nuclear plants.